Random Citizen

Seth Godin’s new book Poke The Box is designed to help you imagine a world where there are no middlemen, no publishers, no bosses, no HR folks, and no one telling you what you can or can’t do. ‘When was the last time you did something for the first time?’. (Poke the Box). Seth Godwin’s new book, Poke the Box is all about becoming someone who starts something, someone who initiates, and someone who is prepared to fail along the way if it helps make a difference.

‘The Seventh Imperative’ is frightening and therefore easy to overlook or ignore but the key to success is having the ‘guts and heart and passion to ship’. ‘Flux’ is when things are moving, when there is flow and movement. ‘Risk’ involves the chance of winning and losing; we put something at stake and it may (or may not) pay off. Some people have begun to confuse ‘flux’ with ‘risk’, and think anything that is unpredictable is risky. Fearful people try to avoid collisions, so they avoid movement altogether. These people have made two mistakes: they’ve assumed risk is bad, and associated it with failure.

Many people are afraid to move, or at least to experience a change in any form, because they’re afraid of being held back by the status quo. “If a project doesn’t have movement, then compared to the rest of the world, you’re actually moving backward” – Andrew Keen, author of The First Rule Of Doing Work That Matters. Zig Ziglar says, “Go to work on a regular basis”. In short, show up. Don’t let setbacks or blocks or anxiety push you off task, or your lizard brain will look for the easy way out every single time.

Look for the fear. That’s almost always the source of your doubt. We’ve been brainwashed for generations. The system has created an expensive misunderstanding. Reject the tyranny of being picked.

The Season’s Pass – why not buy a season’s pass and sell your boss or colleagues on being the initiator? “Sometimes what you start doesn’t work every time should give you confidence, because it means you’re doing something that frightens others”. Starting means you’re going to finish. If it doesn’t ship, you’ve failed. You haven’t poked the box if the box doesn’t realize it’s been poked.

“To merely start without finishing is just boasting, or stalling, or a waste of time”. “At some point, your work has to intersect with the market”.

If you focus on what people are going to think, you’re bound to hold back. The winning part comes from LEARNING from each and every failure. The only way to get better at throwing though is to throw. Throw poorly, then throw again. “Get good at throwing first”.

Some of us hold back when we should be starting instead. This habit is extremely common, and it destroys our ability to make a contribution. Seth recommends that you ignore your boss and keep starting things. There’s a third way, but it shouldn’t be taken seriously unless you’re impatient and bold. ‘Hypergo’ is dealing with our fear of shipping by starting something else instead.

The person who constantly asks questions, interrupts, and takes endless notes isn’t just annoying – they’re also self-sabotaging and hiding. It’s not good to be too fat or too thin or to have blood pressure too high or too low, and in the same way, it not’s good to start too little or too often.

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The book contains a detailed explanation and analysis of the 5th-century BC Chinese military, from weapons, environmental conditions, and strategy to rank and discipline. For almost 1,500 years it was the lead text in an anthology that was formalized as the Seven Military Classics. Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian, the first of China’s 24 dynastic histories, records an early tradition that a text on military matters was written by one “Sun Wu” (孫武) from the State of Qi. This text was traditionally identified with the received Master Sun’s Art of War.

The conventional view is that Sun Wu was a military theorist who fled his home state of Qi to the southeastern kingdom of Wu. Beginning around the 12th century, some Chinese scholars began to doubt the historical existence of Sun Tzu. The name “Sun Wu” does not appear in any text prior to the Records of the Grand Historian. In 1972, the Yinqueshan Han slips were discovered in two Han dynasty tombs near the city of Linyi in Shandong Province. This discovery showed that much of the historical confusion was due to the fact that there were two texts that could have been referred to as “Master Sun’s Art of War”, not one.

During the Sengoku period (c. 1467–1568), the Japanese daimyō Takeda Shingen is said to have become almost invincible in all battles without relying on guns. General Võ Nguyên Giáp successfully implemented tactics described in The Art of War during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The book is used as instructional material at the US Military Academy at West Point. The Art of War has been applied to many fields outside of the military. Much of the text is about how to outsmart one’s opponent without actually having to engage in physical battle.

It has found application as a training guide for many competitive endeavors that do not involve actual combat. Many business books have applied lessons taken from the book to office politics and corporate business strategy. The Art of War is often quoted while developing tactics and/or strategy in esports. It has also been applied in sports, most notably by Brazil’s 2002 World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. In the 1987 movie Wall Street, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) frequently references it. The 20th James Bond film, Die Another Day (2002) also references The Art Of War as well as Colonel Moon and his father.

Miller’s Crossing is a 1990 American gangster film written, directed, and produced by the Coen brothers. The plot concerns a power struggle between two rival gangs and how the protagonist, Tom Reagan, plays both sides against each other. In 2005, Time chose Miller’s Crossing as one of the 100 greatest films made since the inception of the periodical. Within Caspar’s gang, there is tension between Tom and the brutal Eddie Dane. After learning that his men didn’t actually see Tom kill Bernie, the Dane takes Tom back to verify that Bernie’s body is there.

Tom expects to find no corpse and to be executed for it. Instead, the group finds a decomposing body that had been shot in the face and disfigured beyond recognition by birds.

While writing Miller’s Crossing, the Coen brothers tentatively titled the film The Bighead—their nickname for Tom Reagan. The budget was reported by film industry magazines as around $14 million, but the Coens have said that the film cost “substantially less” than that. During casting they had envisioned Trey Wilson (who played Nathan Arizona in their previous film Raising Arizona) as gangster boss Leo O’Bannon but two days before principal photography began, actor Albert Finney was cast instead. The film was shot in New Orleans as the Coens were attracted to its look. Many scenes, characters, and dialogue are derived from Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Glass Key.

It was a box-office failure at the time, making slightly more than $5 million, out of its $10–$14 million budget. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. Miller’s Crossing won the Critic’s Award at the 2nd Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in 1991. It was nominated for the Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics. In 2010, The Guardian called it the 24th best crime movie of all time.

Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film depicts the events before and after, but not during, a diamond heist. It became a modest success in the United States after grossing $2.8 million against its scant budget. A soundtrack was released featuring songs used in the film, mostly from the 1970s. In the present, White and Pink beat Nash for information.

Orange reveals to Nash that he is an undercover police officer. Eddie impulsively kills Nash and accuses Orange of lying. He is about to execute Orange, whom he suspects is the traitor. But White intervenes and holds Joe at gunpoint, insisting that Orange is not an undercover cop. Reservoir Dogs was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing and suggested by the 1952 film Kansas City Confidential.

Quentin Tarantino originally planned to shoot the film with his friends on a budget of $30,000 in a 16 mm black-and-white format. Harvey Keitel’s wife gave the script to Tarantino and Lawrence Bender, who raised $1.5 million for the film’s production. Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, and Tim Roth auditioned for the roles of Mr. Pink, Mr. Orange, and Mr. Blonde respectively. Reservoir Dogs’ warehouse scenes were inspired by scenes from The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and City on Fire. Tarantino’s decision not to film the diamond robbery was twofold: for budgetary reasons, and to keep the details of the heist ambiguous. By not showing the robbery and having characters describe it, the film is allowed to be “about other things”, similar to Glengarry Glen Ross.

Reservoir Dogs premiered at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival and grossed $2,832,029 at the U.S. box office. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 90% based on 71 reviews and an average rating of 8.9/10. Empire magazine named it the “Greatest Independent Film” ever made. The film did not receive a home video release until 1995. The film has received substantial criticism for its strong violence and language.

Roger Ebert gave it two and a half stars out of four and said that the script could have been better. One scene that viewers found particularly unnerving was the ear-cutting scene. Many people walked out during the film, including horror film director Wes Craven and makeup effects artist Rick Baker. Critics have observed parallels between Reservoir Dogs and other films. For its nonlinear storyline, the film has often been compared to Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon.

In February 2012, director Jason Reitman cast Black actors in the originally White cast of Mr. Blonde. Comparisons have been made regarding the black humor in both the films, the theme of accidents, and more concretely, the style of dialogue and narrative.

The film was screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Critic’s Award at the 4th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in 1993. The release of the VHS rental video was delayed until 1995 due to the British Board of Film Classification refusing the film a home video certificate. Region 1 DVDs of Reservoir Dogs have been released multiple times.

Night Shift is a 1982 American comedy film directed by Ron Howard. The film centers on a timid night-shift morgue employee whose life is turned upside down by a new co-worker who fancies himself a free-spirited entrepreneur. It stars Howard’s Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler along with Michael Keaton and Shelley Long. Chuck and Bill’s foray into the prostitution business draws the ire of dangerous pimps who come to the morgue and threaten to kill Chuck. After a shootout with the pimps, Chuck and Bill are rescued, but are arrested for promoting prostitution.

With renewed determination, Chuck finds Belinda working in an adult club and professes his love for her. Night Shift grossed $21,095,638 million at the domestic box office. Film received mostly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60/10. Many reviewers praised the performances of the male leads, particularly Michael Keaton.